CIC seeks media help for implementation of RTI

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Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Author / Source : STAFF REPORTER

DHAKA, APR 19: The chief Information Commissioner (CIC), Muhammad Zamir, at a dialogue on Tuesday yearned for cooperation from the media for effective implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to ensure the right to know of the people.  He said that as the people were not aware about the RTI Act, the media can play vital role to create awareness among grass root people as well as disseminating the principle of the law.
Information Commission and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) jointly organised the dialogue on ‘Role of Media in Effective Implementation of the RTI Process’ at the office at Agargaon in the city.
Information Commissioners Abu Taher, Prof. Dr Sadeka Halim, assistant professor of International Relations department of Jahangirnagar University   Shahab Enam Khan and vice president of BEI, M Humayun Kabir spoke at the dialogue.
Zamir expressed dissatisfaction over the private service organizations (PSOs) as they had not submitted the names of the designated officer for RTI.
Only 330 PSOs submitted their designated RTI officers’ name to the Information commission till March, he said.
Criticizing the role of the PSOs in effective implementation of the law he said they did not submit their designated officials’ names intentionally. However he said the PSOs played important role to formulate the act. 
“The PSOs do not perform their responsibility properly,” he said.
Zamir also urged the media to publish exclusive feature and column on RTI in the law pages of the newspaper to create awareness among the people.
Pointing out the activities of the commission Zamir said about 26,000 people sent questions on RTI from Feb 5 to March 5. Of them 98 per cent was replied.